Kerchak
Kerchak was the leader of the gorilla family and a major character in Disney's 1999 animated film Tarzan. He was voiced by Lance Henriksen. History Kerchak was the powerful leader of the gorilla family. But he can be grumpy and obstreperous at times, especially after losing his and his mate Kala's son to Sabor the leopard, where his loving and caring side quickly switched to his stern and serious side. When Kala brings the newly orphaned baby Tarzan into the family, he shuns the idea of the boy being his son as he distrusts humans, but allowed Kala to keep him. A few years later, Tarzan (now a young boy) runs into Kerchak, but is able to be led away by Terk. Later that day, an herd of elephants stampede through the jungle where the troop are eating from termite mounts. Kerchak rescues one of troops infants from the stampede and takes it to it's mother. He then goes to the river's edge where Tarzan claims to be resonsible for causing the stampede. Kerchak scolds Tarzan as could killed someone. Kala then comes to Tarzan's defence and calls out Kerchak for not giving Tarzan a chance to prove himself, to which Kerchak replies that Tarzan will never be one of them. As Tarzan grew into a young man, he starts befriending humans that came into the jungle, and disobeying Kerchak's orders to stay away from them and protect the gorillas, even going as far as betraying their family. It isn't until after defeating the hunter Clayton and before dying from a gunshot from the evil hunter that Kerchak, remorseful of his previous behaviour towards Tarzan, finally accepts him as his son and passes on the leadership of the gorilla family to him. He had sacrificed himself to save his family. Gallery Trivia * In the original novel, Kerchak was a major antagonist. This role however is given to Cecil Clayton in the film, with Kerchak becoming the false antagonist instead. * Kerchak has been inspired by King Kong, as well as various serious Disney characters, such as Yen Sid, Mr. Darling, Bagheera, King Triton, Chief Powhatan, and Chief Tui. * Kerchak is not bad or an antagonist, since he only wants to protect the gorillas and his adoptive son Tarzan from danger, just because he wants Tarzan to protect his family from Clayton (but later except Jane and her father), so he was still neutral first at the beginning. * He was stopped by Tarzan from attacking Jane and her father. This doesn’t mean he was bad, he was just neutral first because he was over-protective to Tarzan. * It is possible that besides his and Kala's son, Kerchak have been the father of Terk, Flynt, Mungo and the other young gorillas in the troop as he is the only mature adult male in the troop and that in real life, only the silverback male of a gorilla troop can mate with the females. Category:Characters Category:Tarzan characters Category:Males Category:Animals Category:Wise characters Category:Fathers Category:Apes Category:Pessimists Turned Optimists Category:Deceased characters Category:Disney characters